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Scooby Snack, n.

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Inflections:   Plural Scooby Snacks, Scooby Snax.
Forms:  see scooby n.   and snack n.2   Also with lower-case initials.(Show Less)
Frequency (in current use): 
Origin: From a proper name, combined with an English element. Etymons: proper name Scooby  , snack n.2
Etymology: < Scooby (in the name Scooby Doo  : see scooby n.) + snack n.2
In the television series, films, etc., featuring Scooby Doo, Scooby Snacks are a type of dog treat which he finds so irresistible that they are used to induce him to confront dangerous or frightening situations. See, for example:
1972   Washington Post 16 July k5/3   He's a dog who is always going into houses with adventures in 'em, and they have to give him a Scooby snack in case he's afraid to trap the monster which turns out to be a villain.
The sense ‘a very large snack’ (see sense 1) is in allusion to Scooby Doo's insatiable appetite, which he attempts to satisfy by eating sandwiches consisting of many layers and fillings. With sense 2   compare the following earlier use humorously suggesting that the Scooby Snacks in the cartoon are really illegal drugs:
1988   Galveston (Texas) Daily News 6 Aug. 1/4   You cartoon types are through corrupting this nation's youth. We're cracking down. We've got Scooby-Doo downtown right now, and those so-called ‘Scooby Snacks’ of his in our crime lab.
orig. and chiefly U.S.
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 1. colloq. A snack, esp. given as a reward or inducement; spec. a bite-sized treat or a large multilayered sandwich (likened to those eaten by the cartoon character Scooby Doo: see etymology and scooby n.). Also: food eaten to satisfy a hunger induced by drinking, smoking, or drug use.

1989   Oshkosh (Wisconsin) Advance-Titan 15 Nov. 15 (advt. for Scooby Doo-themed bar)    Scooby's. Where every drink is a double... Free Scooby Snacks.
1990   Dauphin (Manitoba) Herald 9 Jan. a6/2   The scooby snacks I had prepared for the road were digested during three lonely meals at the Winnipeg train station.
1992   Salina (Kansas) Jrnl. 1 June n2/5   Hey, I guess if you don't mind holding rotten horse's teeth, then it wouldn't be a problem. I deserved a Scooby snack for that one.
1995   Guardian 15 July a6/4   I am astonished that anyone can discuss unfeasibly large sarnies without mentioning the zenith of this particular art form—the Scooby Snack.
2012   Daily Camera (Boulder, Colorado) (Nexis) 3 May (Lifestyle section)   There's..a table of healthy, vegetarian munchies. Sugar's not a huge hit here. Neither are drugs, so ditch the Scooby Snacks.

1989—2012(Hide quotations)

 
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 2. slang. In pl. Any of various narcotic or illegal drugs.

1996   Chapel Hill (N. Carolina) Daily Tar Heel 15 Nov. (Mag. section) 8/3   They were perpetually stoned on Scooby Snacks, and that was the reason they lasted so long.
2001   J. Carroll Darkest Hour xiii. 175   I can't have you baby-sitting all whacked up on Scooby Snacks.
2014   Evening News & Tribune (Jeffersonville, Indiana) (Nexis) 31 Mar. (State & Regional News section)   The officer reported finding ‘a half bag of Scooby Snack spice and two smoking pipes with residue in each one’.

1996—2014(Hide quotations)

 

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    This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, September 2016).